Home of authors Holly Hunt & Jophrael L. Avario

Okay, so those astute enough to read my previous post’s date log will note that my last post was March 2016 – Almost 12 months. Okay, ten and a bit.

So, what have I been doing for a year?

Well, I got married (see photo to the right). I ended up acting as a door woman to my own wedding, and breaking every one of the more traditional … traditions on the way. Well, most of them. I wore blue opal earrings and did the ‘new old borrowed blue’ thing. Matt didn’t see me until I walked down the aisle. It rained for every part of the day except the 2 hours we needed for the pictures after the ceremony (when it sunshined up and was beautiful).

We had Darth Vader as a ring bearer, and a Storm Trooper to escort him. I ended up with an unofficial 5th bridesmaid, because we couldn’t do the pedal-throwing thing, and she matched the girls anyway. I made her bouquet two days before the wedding. I’m quite proud of that. All the flowers were fake, and I have my bouquet in a (dry) vase on our table. My husband got thoroughly drunk on the wedding night trying to keep up with my mother, grandmother, aunt and uncle. A good time was had by all :)

I also swapped jobs halfway through last year. with all that extra time, I tried to take on a second job editing and formatting, but the website I was using closed down,and I haven’t been able to get any work since. Well, i did, but I can’t do it. it takes so much time and it’s so boring reading some of those stories. I won’t name and shame, suffice to say, I’m out of that field for a while, only the sporadic insights of my long-term clients keeping me connected to it.

I did NaNoWriMo for the first time in 7 years, according to my account. i failed to keep pace for all but the first and last days of the event. But I made it! The Inuit Nightmare is now undergoing heavy editing and rewriting, to bring it back up to snuff. The Devil’s Wife, removed from circulation (re: out of print) in March, is undergoing another look-over, as I didn’t like some of the elements, and there were still grammatical errors within the story (overall, though, I still think it’s my favourite). I’m working to get it back up on Amazon as a ‘rereleased’ edition ASAP, so watch for that announcement. I’ve also set up a Facebook event for the launch party, so we’ll see how that goes. Free stuff, door prizes and other fun that I haven’t yet figured out will be on the cards. Just be wary of the date on the page: just like the staircases at Hogwarts, they like to change without any notice.

Also, I’m rereading the HP books, plus the play. And some of my FAVE fanfic. But only a few. A couple of times each.

And watching the movies. Moving on!

Talking about stretching myself waaaay too thin, I’m also collaborating on not one, bt two maybe even three – podcasts as well this year. The first, Beyond the Words, is a podcast about the art of writing, publishing and promoting books (but can stretch to other media, like comics and movies as well). The second, an as-yet-unnamed podcast exploring Australian mysteries, looks to be fun, if I can get some of the research together (the other presenter is claiming he has too much to do to sit around researching ;) ).

But this year should be different. I have the covers for Devil’s Wife and Inuit Nightmare ready to go (can’t use the Devil’s Wife cover now, so had to get another one :) ). I’m working through DW, on page… 42 of 130. Am thinking about rewriting the final conflict, but that’s ok. I thought I would have to, I’ve already eliminated a major plot problem.

OK. Keep an eye on this site or the FB page to make sure you don’t miss out!

PS, comment on this post and let me know what you think of the cover! Is it enough, too much, etc? Good and bad points! OK, go!

Liz smothered a smile, looking at the man in front of her. He was looking through his pockets for a pen, even though his phone was hanging half-out of his jacket pocket. She rested her head on her hand, her elbow on the bar, and watched him.

She’d seen the man around town before, but she’d not spoken to him he’d spent all night watching her as she danced with Lisa. She’d sent him a couple of smiles, encouraging him over, and he’d finally joined them around 2.30. It was now a quarter to four, and she was looking to head home.

“Gotcha!” he called, pulling out a pen and holding it out to her.

Liz smiled and reached over to rescue his phone from his pocket. “I’m not that old-school, sweetie.”

Phil flushed, putting the pen back in his jacket. She held the phone out for him to unlock, then filled in her name and number.

“Well, then, I will see you later,” Liz said, and reached out to kiss the man on the cheek.

For a while life was all rainbows and kittens prancing in a sky full of cotton candy clouds…that was until the demands of the real world set in.

My best friend is getting married and she asked me to be her maid of honor. She’s not worried about flowers, or the dress, or the food at the venue. No, she’s worried about the bachelorette party, what kind of penis crown she will wear, and the nipple size of the stripper who will be attending.

I’m in way over my head trying to balance life with a boyfriend, planning a penis party, and writing my romance novel. Something is bound to give.

I am of the belief that fictional literary characters, especially much-loved and -lauded ones like Sherlock Holmes, Dr Jekyll, Sabriel, The Doctor, Tori Alexander, Alana of Tortall and Beka Cooper – to name my own personal heroes – are “timelocked”, meaning that they shouldn’t age, shouldn’t grow old, shouldn’t become senile or grow Altzimer’s or lose their cognitive function. They should not age like mortal men, but instead remain the epitome of youth, of stamina, of wit, logic and genius.

This was impressed to me upon watching Ian Mckellan playing an aging Sherlock in “Mr. Holmes”. He’s growing old, losing his cognitive prowess, no longer able to recall memories that mean so much to him it drove him from his profession and into retirement. This Sherlock is 93, frail, aged and clearly losing his faculties, the doctor having made him mark a diary every time he forgot something important (spoiler, there’s a LOT of marks in there by the end of the movie).

I find this to be a frightening and horrific story. Not for the story itself, but for the implications of the circumstance behind it. A desperate, lonely old man, aware of his own failings and his growing issues in health both physical and mental, once a proud logical King, now reduced to the very essence of old age.

I don’t want this. I don’t want my favorite characters to grow old and face reality, a reality I specifically read fiction (my favorite genres, at least) to avoid.

I want Alana to stay thirty-something forever, to defend Tortall from Wild Magic, Spidrens and slavers.

I want Tori Alexander zipping her way back and forth through time, the ultimate mum with immortality at her fingertips (and, yes, even the immortal with access to magic, quantum physics and the ears of gods later ‘ages out’ of the world of fantasy).

Most of all, I want Sherlock to remain his witty self, top of the game, never outmatched and never growing old, sneering any senility and high as f**k on cocaine.

So for god’s sake, stop injecting reality into my fantasy, stop hitting me with the reality of where my life will probably end. These characters are my friends, and no one wants to sit by and watch their friends die, so why are you doing this to me?

The Holiday Killer is now out at Amazon and it would be a GOOD IDEA for you all to go out and read it. After all, who DOESN’T like scary and gory crap happening during ‘the most wonderful time of the year’?

***

Happy Holidays…

Around the world, Christmas Eve is a time of joy, hope and new beginnings, where children open presents, parents smile, and all is right with the world.

Except in Matryville.

Holidays are dreaded, rather than anticipated. A killer is on the loose, and he strikes as parents hide their children, fearing the bogeyman’s wrath…

Liz Rhodes, Special Detective at the Matryville Central Police Department, is heading the investigation of the Holiday Killer. She’s close on his tail, a suspect in her grasp…

… and then her son is taken.

Will Liz be able to track down the Killer before it’s too late? Or will Jamie pay the price for her arrogance? Only time will tell…

***

“The Holiday Killer is a perfect read for anyone who likes a dash of Halloween (specifically John Carpenter’s Halloween) thrown into the mix with their Christmas festivities. Reminiscent of Thomas Harris and Caleb Carr at their most gruesome, and Thomas Ligotti at his creepiest, Holly Hunt has crafted a quality horror gem.”

Meet the Crow: He’s been around for hundreds of years. He took scalps in the time of Cortez and Columbus. He skins men and makes rugs of their hides, lassos of their intestines. Right now he’s angry, and out for blood. Meet the Dove: Matina’s a whore at the Maison de Joie, with more mojo than you can shake a stick at. It’s been said that, with just one bat of her eyelashes, she can turn pennyroyal tea into tincture of opium. Meet the Tracker: Dognose Jones, the adopted son of a Cherokee medicine man, has a special gift. He can smell his prey like a bloodhound scenting its chase. Welcome to the Wild, Weird West.

My Review:

When you pick up a copy of Joseph Hirsch’s works, you know it’s going to be gory, you know it’s going to be bloody, you know it’s going to be good.

Once again, he hasn’t disappointed.

There are scenes in this book that I probably shouldn’t have read while on my lunch break, but I’m a butcher; I can handle the details of a man being skinned (even though I understand the process probably better than someone reading Joseph’s books should have). There’s a lot to love in this book, and I’m having a hard time thinking of anything bad about it.

I’ve been really busy recently! Just this weekend, I’ve been setting up Amazon sales, I’ve been editing and reviewing short erotica stories in an effort to fund comics and projects, I’ve been managing the shop I work at, learning the trade for when the boss nicks off across the other side of the world for October (Rugby Union world cup, YUCK! sport), and generally trying to make sure Matty sees even the slightest little bit of me in between being eaten alive by my cat, who has given me more scars on my hands in her four months of living with us than my butchery job has to date (for those counting, 6 years). I haven’t had time to read all the wonderful books on my pile, but I shall soon!

I’ve been organising some Kickstarter campaigns to get my comic book empire off the ground (withmoderatesuccess, I might add), and looking for a new apartment, because this one is sinking into the ground, rupturing things, all while trying to find somewhere that won’t reject us outright because we own a cat.

Great, ey?

And while setting up Amazon for the sale of copies of The Battle of the Blood Moon, my new comic, I stumbled across something awesome on Amazon:

All of my books, including the paperback of Blood Moon, are on sale! The paperback is something like 66% off, while everything else will save you at least a few pennies (and I’ve arranged to get the anthologiesI’m in to be added to that page as well, so you can all find my stuff very easily)!

I would love it if you can all run over to Amazon and gather up any books you’re missing! Hurry, though, because The Devil’s Wife won’t be up there for much longer!

Also, don’t forget to head over to Kickstarter and help me get a comic version of The Devil’s Wife underway. It’s too late to join The Battle of the Blood Moon bandwagon, as that comic series is funded, but don’t miss out on getting a copy as part of The Devil’s Wife Kickstarter!

Love you all! Don’t forget to grab yourselves some deals!

In other news, I should be resuming my reviews soon, as I picked up a stack of books almost a foot tall at Supanova Sydney in June while selling copies of BotBM, and if The Devil’s Wife Kickstarter gets funded, I’ll suddenly have all this time I don’t have to spend raising funds in order to read said books.

Prophetic dreams have haunted Dan Tenney since childhood, foretelling him of a life-changing event that is soon to take place. But before he can learn the meaning of his visions, he is attacked by a shadowy group of extremists: the Brotherhood of the Grail.

Finding sanctuary underground, an ancient relic comes into his possession and Dan begins to understand the path his visions have laid out before him. His quest will be fraught with an otherwordly people and an event that could tip the balance in favour of human existence—or disastrously against it. The mysterious Brotherhood will do everything in their power to prevent Dan from fulfilling his destiny as the Bearer of Ouroboros.

My Review:

The story starts out slow, with the introduction of Nick and Dan, and, like all good conspiracy books, continues along the same vein, with pockets of action between long, sweeping arcs of exposition, discovery and travel.

Nonetheless, it is a strong book, full of character development, a good journey and a lot of twists and turns. More fun fantasy than hard conspiracy, The Ouroboros Key is one for all you out there wishing that Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code wasn’t so heavy.

Kira, a huntress plagued by dreams of fire and pain has worked tirelessly to rid her city of the scourge that has nearly destroyed it…nostvores, mythlend creatures with dark and vast appetites for blood and sex. She does this not only because they had killed so many people in her life, but also because she has an edge that no other human had…she has their abilities. The problem was, these abilities were killing her and she feared time was no longer on her side.

So the moment she found out that Darius, a nostvore leader was threatening to awaken an indestructible species to help him enslave all humans and mythlends, and that she may be the key to his plan, she knew her only choice was to risk her life with the little time that she had left and join her enemy to find out why, and to make sure his plan failed.

If that wasn’t dangerous enough, the more time she spends with the Vanatre nostvore Emmerich, and the mooran Kuron, who she brings with her for protection, the less she wants to kill them. Instead, she feels an unexplainable attraction towards them both, and she fears surrendering to such desire with either is a deadly game to play, for she would not only be risking her life, but quite possibly her heart.

My Review:

I loved the story. While the world of Vampires and Werewolves has been done to death, this book brings a new light to the genre. Along with nostvores (vamps of olde) and lycroulds (werewolves at will) are joined by many other species, some of which I have never even thought about before. There’s a twist on banshees, demons and soul suckers.

The book has a great plot, saving the world, who doesn’t love that? Personaly, I thought Kira was too much of a whining little bitch to end up with TWO hot guys hurrying after her, creating the same form of love triangle that I hate – it’s not ‘will she, won’t she’ if it’s obvious that she’s ignoring the attentions of the nice guy friend who’s been there for her forever.

You know, just once I would like the nice guy not to get screwed. Just sayin’.

As much as I would love to give this book a 5.5, which it does deserve, my policy is unfortunately to remove a star owing to bad editing. And, sadly, this one has awkward sentences, missing/doubled grammatical marks, redundancies like nothing else that make reading terrible, commas placed in random spots in sentences… Run the book by a good editor, and I will happily upgrade to its deserved rating.

I haven’t loved a vampire book like this since ages ago (like, 8, 9 years). Ms Clark deserves much thanks for keeping me engaged like this. Kudos! Highly recommended to everyone who has become disillusioned with the Paranormal Genre. Oh, and the sex is steamy too. Yum!

4.5/5

PS. At the risk of sounding like a 15yo fangirl… “Oh my god, I LOVED Kuran! Massive <3s!”

About Holly…

Butcher by day, author by night, Holly spends her days off writing, playing in her garden and watching superhero cartoons. Holly lives with her husband Matthew and her cats Talia al-Kitty and The Joker, in a two-bedroom flat crammed with comics, video games, books and movie memorabilia. An active cosplayer, Holly and Matthew take time out of their days to entertain kids as various DC comics characters, and make their own costumes (when Real Life allows).

Her debut novel, The Devil’s Wife, was released to great success, and was nominated for the Book of the Year awards 2011. Its re-release is scheduled for June 2017, but may be sooner! Check out the FB page for event details!

Her latest book, The Holiday Killer, was released Dec 8, 2015, to amazing reviews! check it out and grab your copy here.

Holly Hunt

Anthologies

Jophrael L. Avario

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Holly is soon to host a review podcast, in place of her old text reviews. Beyond the Book will focus on the book, the authors behind it, and the different mechanics and strategies to writing words in many different mediums.

For information on joining the show, send an email to hollylhunt@hotmail.com. The first volume of our collected works looks to be taking place some time in February. Happy hunting, and we'll keep you posted!

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